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Wednesdays, 12:45 PM - 2:15 PM; 2 sessions; starting 6/24/2026, ending 7/1/2026

At the beginning of the 20th century Leo Stein moved to Paris and took an interest in the latest happenings in art. He was soon joined by his younger sister, Gertrude. The two Americans bought the work of emerging artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Matisse, and invited friends to see the paintings on Saturday evenings. Their brother, Michael, and his wife hosted similar evenings just a few blocks away. After the Great War intervened, Leo had moved on and Gertrude and her partner, Alice B. Toklas, hosted emerging writers such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald in their salons. Let’s travel back to Paris and feel what it was like to meet these creative people at 27 rue de Fleurus. 

Kathleen Dixon Donnelly, Ph.D., retired as Senior Lecturer at Birmingham [UK] City University to relocate to her hometown of Pittsburgh. The topic of her research for her degree from Dublin City University was early 20th century writers’ salons in Dublin, London, Paris and New York City. She has given presentations about the writers in lifelong learning programs in both the UK and the US. Kathleen regularly posts a blog , “Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago at www.suchfriends.wordpress.com, which has been collected into the series, “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through V covering 1920 through 1924 are available on Amazon. Her book Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group in the Literary 1920s has been published by Pen and Sword Books.

Tuesdays, 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM; 2 sessions; starting 6/23/2026, ending 6/30/2026

All governments depend on tax revenue, but elected officials in democracies must contend with popular resistance to taxes. Our first session will consider the major federal and state tax innovations since 1789, and describe how they succeeded despite popular opposition (and occasional tax revolts). The second session will consider Vanessa Williamson’s new book The Price of Democracy. She argues that taxes have been linked to ongoing debates over representation, slavery, voting rights, and redistribution. Historically, political and economic elites have tried to limit political participation in order to minimize their own tax burdens. Her examples include Jim Cow laws and the current debates over voter ID and vote-by-mail. 

Susan B. Hansen is professor emerita of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, where she taught courses in American politics and Women’s Studies from 1980 to 2012. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 1972, and has also taught at the universities of Washington State, Illinois-Urbana, Michigan, Glasgow, and Stanford. She has worked in survey research at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and the Institute for Survey Research at the University of Michigan. She is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and four books, most recently The Politics of Sex: Public Opinion, Parties, and Presidential Elections (Routledge, 2014). Since retirement she has taught several Osher courses for both ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ and Pitt.

Mondays, 9:45 AM - 11:15 AM; 4 sessions; starting 6/1/2026, ending 6/22/2026

We breathe without thinking even as we navigate tides and rivers of air without a notice. Our class examine what one breathes whether being outdoors, staying indoors, flying on an airplane – or fighting a wildfire. We start with a story to prompt questions about science as a way of knowing and about science within society. Next is a survey what is known about the atmospheric layers and their roles as conveyance – and as habitat for microbial life. Air particles arrive in each breathe drawn from global, regional, local and indoor sources. This learning about the atmosphere and its particle load is foundational to pandemics and contagion spread, air quality, national security, allergy season and indoor health. We discuss best practices for how to live better in our humid temperate climate and its seasonal changes. This course is taught from view of the atmosphere and its airborne particles, not medicine or human health. Class participation is essential. We educate one another. Each class ends with a question and optional readings for the next class.

Claire Williams is a research professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at American University. She has a doctorate in forestry with a minor in genetics from North Carolina State University in 1986 and in the 2021, she completed a MA degree in Global Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. While her career has been mostly academia, she has worked in federal government, Fortune 50 corporate research and consulting. As a tenured full professor at Texas A&M Faculty of Genetics, she has been a visiting professor at several other universities and served as a AAAS Fellow in Science Diplomacy and science advisor at US Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs as well as R&D project manager for Weyerhaeuser Company. In 2019, she was a Fulbright Scholar to Russia’s Sukachev Institute of Forest in Krasnoyarsk Siberia. Her ecology and evolution research contributions have been recognized with the John Simon Guggenheim award, the German Academic Service, Bullard Fellow at Harvard among others. Her current project is modern desert dust storm content in the Middle East; she has written over 100 papers and three books.